History Main / WhoWantsToLiveForever

* In the TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness equivalent to the above, ''TabletopGame/MummyTheCurse'', mummies at least don't technically "live forever". They ''exist'' for all eternity, potentially, but they actually spend most of their time effectively dead. They just get woken up when their cult calls them, their Judge needs them, or in a once-every-thousand-years cosmic event. In fact, most mummies are more concerned with living the time they have before they sink back into torpor. Played straight with the Shuankshen, however, who are eternal (to the point that them coming back in the bodies of some post-human species is raised in their {{sourcebook}}) and have to share their bodies with an insane EldritchAbomination.

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* In the TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness equivalent to the above, ''TabletopGame/MummyTheCurse'', mummies at least don't technically "live forever". They ''exist'' for all eternity, potentially, but they actually spend most of their time effectively dead. They just get woken up when their cult calls them, their Judge needs them, or in a once-every-thousand-years cosmic event. In fact, most mummies are more concerned with living the time they have before they sink back into torpor. Played straight with the Shuankshen, Deceived, however, who are eternal (to the point that them coming back in the bodies of some post-human species is raised in their {{sourcebook}}) and have to share their bodies with an insane EldritchAbomination.

* Cain, [[WordOfDante who is sometimes conflated with the Wandering Jew]], may be considered an example. After killing his brother, the Lord promises that anyone who harms him (which may include Cain himself) will suffer God's wrath. He places a mark on Cain, so that everyone will know to leave him alone. Although not explicitly immortal, this guarantees that Cain will have a long time to suffer for his crime.

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* Cain, [[WordOfDante who is sometimes conflated with the Wandering Jew]], may be considered an example. After killing his brother, the Lord promises that anyone who harms him (which may include Cain himself) will suffer God's wrath. He places a mark on Cain, so that everyone will know to leave him alone. Although not explicitly immortal, [[CruelMercy this guarantees that Cain will have a long time to suffer for his crime.]]

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' has a Regiment of Renown based on this trope. Richter Kruegar was a particularly unscrupulous mercenary willing to fight alongside a {{Necromancer}} against his own countrymen, at least until the end of the campaign when the tide of battle began to turn. Ever the opportunist, Kruegar decided to betray his patron to curry favor with the victors, but the necromancer blasted him with a DyingCurse that reduced Kruegar to a heap of bones. The next night Kruegar rose as a free-willed undead, cursed to never know the peace of the grave, since he will reanimate no matter what tries to destroy him. He now leads a Cursed Company of skeletal warriors spawned by his dark blade, traveling the world in a grisly parody of his previous lifestyle, in search of an enemy that can kill him for good.

* The Pathfinder example above builds upon lore established for the 2nd edition ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' setting ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'', where the sourcebook "Van Richten's Guide to the Lich" states that the majority of liches end up ''committing suicide'' when they realise they have not only condemned themselves to an eternity devoid of any physical pleasures[[note]]as skeletal undead, they have neither need nor capacity for tactile pleasure, food, drink, drugs or pretty much any sort of non-intellectual stimulation[[/note]], but have also rendered themselves inherently incapable of forming bonds with mortals due to the temporal distortion lichdom involves. Because liches don't suffer from mortal frailties, they can easily lose track of time when they get involved in something, and not realise what's happened until it's too late -- an example given in the book is a lich sitting down to read a book, then looking up after finishing and realising ''an entire generation has aged to dust'' in the time it spent reading and contemplating every single meaning of what it read. With such an alienating form of immortality, the only liches who survive longer than a few decades tend to be either insane, have incredibly strong wills, or are possessed of a sufficiently long-lasting goal to keep them focused on staying existent.

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* The Pathfinder ''Pathfinder'' example above builds upon lore established for the 2nd edition ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' setting ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'', where the sourcebook "Van Richten's Guide to the Lich" states that the majority of liches end up ''committing suicide'' when they realise they have not only condemned themselves to an eternity devoid of any physical pleasures[[note]]as skeletal undead, they have neither need nor capacity for tactile pleasure, food, drink, drugs or pretty much any sort of non-intellectual stimulation[[/note]], but have also rendered themselves inherently incapable of forming bonds with mortals due to the temporal distortion lichdom involves. Because liches don't suffer from mortal frailties, they can easily lose track of time when they get involved in something, and not realise what's happened until it's too late -- an example given in the book is a lich sitting down to read a book, then looking up after finishing and realising ''an entire generation has aged to dust'' in the time it spent reading and contemplating every single meaning of what it read. With such an alienating form of immortality, the only liches who survive longer than a few decades tend to be either insane, have incredibly strong wills, or are possessed of a sufficiently long-lasting goal to keep them focused on staying existent.

* Discussed in [[http://kiwisbybeat.16mb.com/Kiwis/minus13.html this strip]] of ''Webcomic/{{Minus}}''. The three kids are talking about how being human is the way to go- magic would make things too easy and living forever would take the satisfaction out of life... then they see [[GooGooGodlike Minus]] floating by on a cloud, and silently watch her from the ground. It implies this trope is just sour grapes about our own mortality.

* While not truly immortal, it's often said in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' that the oldest dragons often suffer from immense boredom and world-weariness by the time they reach the final, [[StrongerWithAge most powerful]] stage of their lives. This has a nasty side-effect of causing them to go on kingdom-devastating rampages in order to [[SuicideByCop provoke some heroes into killing them]].

* While ''PalladiumBooks'' games often present immortality as largely beneficial and without negative repercussions (in ''Heroes Unlimited'' it is both a Mega-Power and a Major Super Ability), in the ''PalladiumFantasy'' supplement "Dragons & Gods" one of the deific powers is named "Curse: Immortality". While it allows someone to live forever, it does not make them immune to disease or any form of illness or [[AgeWithoutYouth aging]], so that eventually someone will end up a crippled geriatric unable to die. Although the aging process is reduced to about a year per century, so it doesn't exactly become a bad thing until much much later. Some other paths to immortality (Between the Shadows' Dream Maker and Shadows of Light's Reaper in Nightbane, Library of Bletherad's Shadow Self spell in PF, Mystic Russia's necromancy spell of vampirism "Return from the Grave" in ''Rifts'') have inherent insanity-causing attributes (Russia's is only avoided if you feed on blood, like any good ol' Master Vampire), and some (Juicer Uprising's option of becoming a Murder Wraith, Federation of Magic's description of Alistair Dunscon) require you to become an evil monster addicted to killing people on a regular basis to survive.

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* While ''PalladiumBooks'' ''Creator/PalladiumBooks'' games often present immortality as largely beneficial and without negative repercussions (in ''Heroes Unlimited'' it is both a Mega-Power and a Major Super Ability), in the ''PalladiumFantasy'' ''TabletopGame/PalladiumFantasy'' supplement "Dragons & Gods" one of the deific powers is named "Curse: Immortality". While it allows someone to live forever, it does not make them immune to disease or any form of illness or [[AgeWithoutYouth aging]], so that eventually someone will end up a crippled geriatric unable to die. Although the aging process is reduced to about a year per century, so it doesn't exactly become a bad thing until much much later. Some other paths to immortality (Between the Shadows' Dream Maker and Shadows of Light's Reaper in Nightbane, Library of Bletherad's Shadow Self spell in PF, Mystic Russia's necromancy spell of vampirism "Return from the Grave" in ''Rifts'') ''TabletopGame/{{Rifts}}'') have inherent insanity-causing attributes (Russia's is only avoided if you feed on blood, like any good ol' Master Vampire), and some (Juicer Uprising's option of becoming a Murder Wraith, Federation of Magic's description of Alistair Dunscon) require you to become an evil monster addicted to killing people on a regular basis to survive.

* ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'' had the Lava Monster, who was explicitly ''cursed'' with immortality. Originally a great viking warrior, his people were slaughtered by Aku, and, as a final act of cruelty, Aku decided not to kill the viking, but instead trapped him inside an unbreakable crystal, to prevent him from ever rejoining his people in Valhalla. Over the millennia, the Viking learned to shape the rock and magma around him into a new body, and constructed a maze of traps and hazards for the sole purpose of drawing in a warrior powerful enough to defeat and kill him in battle.** [[WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack2017 Season 5]] picks up after a 50 year TimeSkip, and one of the first things that happens is the revelation that as a consequence of Jack being pulled from his own time in the pilot, he hasn't aged at all in that time. His consistent failure to defeat Aku in all that time, and the prospect of spending an eternity in this BadFuture, has by now long since driven him to the edge of the DespairEventHorizon.

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* ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'' had the ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'':** The Lava Monster, who Monster was explicitly ''cursed'' with immortality. Originally a great viking warrior, his people were slaughtered by Aku, and, as a final act of cruelty, Aku decided not to kill the viking, but instead trapped him inside an unbreakable crystal, to prevent him from ever rejoining his people in Valhalla. Over the millennia, the Viking learned to shape the rock and magma around him into a new body, and constructed a maze of traps and hazards for the sole purpose of drawing in a warrior powerful enough to defeat and kill him in battle.** [[WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack2017 Season 5]] picks up after a 50 year TimeSkip, and one of the first things that happens is the revelation that that, as a consequence of Jack being pulled from his own time in the pilot, he hasn't aged at all in that time. His consistent failure to defeat Aku in all that time, and the prospect of spending an eternity in this BadFuture, has by now long since driven him to the edge of the DespairEventHorizon.

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